Climate study involved Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences

By Brittany Anas, Camera Staff Writer

Posted:
09/02/2013 01:41:59 PM MDT

Updated:
09/02/2013 01:49:15 PM MDT

Soot sent into the air during the rapid industrialization period in Europe likely caused the abrupt retreat of Alps mountain glaciers, according to new research involving the University of Colorado.

Waleed Abdalati, director of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at CU, is among the co-authors of the new study that is published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The new findings may help resolve the scientific debate about why the Alps glaciers retreated beginning back in the 1860's -- decades before global temperatures started to rise again.

Central European Alps glacier records show that between 1860 and 1930 -- loosely defined as the end of the Little Ice Age in Europe -- large valley glaciers in the Alps abruptly retreated by an average of nearly 0.6 mile.

Yet weather in Europe cooled by nearly 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit during that time. The mismatched climate and glacier records have long puzzled glaciologists and climatologists